I have a program that wants to install the program files and data all in one folder group, and I want to share that data and the program. There isn't a .msi file, but the program is compatible with server 2003. I tried making a shared folder in the console, then installing the program into that folder so the other computers could see it. I keep getting error messages from the other computers. The software would like a mapped drive but I cannot get the other computers to see the program in the shared folder, and doing it that way didn't even put the program in the add/remove programs on the server and I think this says that I did it completely wrong. Can somebody please tell me the whole procedure, I have been looking at all the WHS sites but all I see is about add-ins.
Thank you,
Kathleen

[quote name='4homestylepc' post='770563' date='14-Apr-2009 21:42']I have a program that wants to install the program files and data all in one folder group, and I want to share that data and the program. There isn't a .msi file, but the program is compatible with server 2003. I tried making a shared folder in the console, then installing the program into that folder so the other computers could see it. I keep getting error messages from the other computers. The software would like a mapped drive but I cannot get the other computers to see the program in the shared folder, and doing it that way didn't even put the program in the add/remove programs on the server and I think this says that I did it completely wrong. Can somebody please tell me the whole procedure, I have been looking at all the WHS sites but all I see is about add-ins.[/quote]

If the program requires installation you need to install it on all the PCs. You can't just run it from a shared folder.

Install a program to a shared folder can be tricky. Generally you want to access the machine hosting the shared folder directly. Did you access the desktop on the WHS machine to do the install? Can you configure the program to use a different data folder?

BTW, what is the program? Maybe someone will have had some experience with it.

I uninstalled the program and started from scratch. I used the console to create a shared folder, that everyone has access to. Then I installed the program on the server, into the shared folder I set up first. It ran fine from the server. Then I went to another computer and installed the workstation version, which does just point to the files on the server. The installation saw the share and everything went fine, I thought. The program is Servant Keeper, a database for churches. It is compatible with server 2003, and they say I have to share it's installed folder (s) as the data is in there also.

I can see the folder and it's files through the console and through the network path. But when I try to run any of the files I get a violation error which I pasted below. I know it is probably specific to the Servant Keeper program, but they don't have any experience with Home server either. We really didn't want to leave any of the bookkeeping or pastors' computers on all the time in order to share with the people who come in and update addresses and other basic info.

I was finally able to run this program on the workstations. It is a simple share, the workstations don't need any installs, but they did need to CREATE a mapped drive. The UNC path or using an already mapped drive did not work. It took a lot of persistence to figure that out, but with sharing set to everyone, full control, it runs great. Thanks for all the people here offering help!

[quote name='4homestylepc' post='771218' date='18-Apr-2009 22:56']I was finally able to run this program on the workstations. It is a simple share, the workstations don't need any installs, but they did need to CREATE a mapped drive. The UNC path or using an already mapped drive did not work. It took a lot of persistence to figure that out, but with sharing set to everyone, full control, it runs great.[/quote]